Whom Gods Destroy (episode)
Kirk and Spock are held captive in an insane asylum by a former Starfleet hero. Summary Log Entries *''Captain’s log, stardate 5718.3. The Enterprise is orbiting Elba 11, a planet with a poisonous atmosphere, where the Federation maintains an asylum for the few remaining incorrigible, criminally insane of the galaxy. We are bringing a revolutionary new medicine to them. A medicine with which the Federation hopes to eliminate mental illness . . . for all time. I am transporting down with Mr. Spock, and we're delivering the medicine to Dr. Donald Cory, the governor of the colony. '' Memorable Quotes "Queen to queen's level three." : - repeated by various characters "Queen to king's level one." : - the countersign "I'm the most beautiful woman on this planet." "You're the only woman on this planet, you stupid cow!" : - Marta and Garth "Why can't I blow off just one of his ears?" "Stop it, Marta. Mr. Spock will think we are lacking in hospitality." : - Marta and Garth "He is my lover, and I must kill him!" : - Marta to Spock about her "lover", Kirk "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer's lease hath all too." "You wrote that?" "Yesterday, as a matter of fact." "It was written by an Earthman named Shakespeare a long time ago." "Which doesn't alter the fact that I wrote it again yesterday! I think it's one of my best poems, don't you?" "I MAY KILL YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS!" : - Marta and Garth "REMOVE THIS ANIMAL!!!!" : - Garth Background Information * The title is taken from Euripedes (later quoted by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow): "Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad." (In Latin: "Quem deus vult perdere, dementat prius.") * Story outline was produced . In the first draft script ( ) Garth of Titan threw the asylum guards out into the poisonous atmospthere. The atmosphere inside the asylum was also more graphic, with inmates displaying symptoms of various mental illnesses. Produced mid-October 1968. * Garth's furred robe is the same one worn by Anton Karidian in "The Conscience of the King." * Interestingly enough, while the Andorian inmate is wearing an almost boa-like red costume, one of the other inmates is wearing the traditional Andorian costume seen in the second season. * Garth's uniform appears to be the same one worn by Commissioner Ferris in "[[The Galileo Seven|The Galileo Seven]]." * The fight between the two Kirks is remarkable in that the unknown stunt double for William Shatner is his spitting image. Hairstyle, build, facial features are eerily similar. * Garth's claim that his chemical explosive was the most power such in history, and one flask could vaporize an entire planet seems doubtful. When the grain in Marta's necklace is detonated as a demonstration to Kirk it destroys her body but has little impact on the surroundings. It also has no effect on the pressure dome or its force field. * Footage of the ''Enterprise'' firing phasers down to the surface of a planet is reused from "Who Mourns for Adonais?". * Space suits are reused from "The Tholian Web". * Garth's torture chair is reused prop of the chair in the neural neutralizer room from "Dagger of the Mind". * In the scene where Garth morphs back from being Kirk while on the floor of the conrol room, watch carefully: Garth's big plastic ring busts off and rolls on the floor as he bangs his fists. *Kirk tells Spock that he doubts King Solomon would have approved of the Vulcan's manner of determining who was Kirk and who was Garth. The two of them, and Dr. McCoy, would meet Solomon (an immortal human who was born Akharin and was then living as Flint) not long afterwards in TOS: "Requiem for Methuselah". *Kirk refers to Spock as his "brother" and Spock agrees with this figurative interpretation of their relationship. Kirk would refer to Spock as his "brother" again in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. *In the United Kingdom, the BBC skipped this episode in all runs of the series though to the early 1990s, due to its content. It was finally shown for the first time on . *Despite the apparent success of the drug in this episode being able to cure the mental illness of Garth and the other inmates, it seems never to have been employed again. In future episodes of TOS, the Enterprise crew encounters characters who are pronounced insane (such as Dr. Sevrin from "The Way to Eden" and Janice Lester from "Turnabout Intruder"), but no mention is made of using the drug introduced in this episode to cure them. Additionally, although the Elba II asylum is mentioned in this epsiode as being the last of its kind, mental asylums are mentioned as being maintained in future incarnations of Star Trek, such as in the motion picture Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Frame of Mind". Links and References * A VHS edition is available through Amazon under ISBN 6300988678. Main cast * William Shatner as Kirk * Leonard Nimoy as Spock * DeForest Kelley as McCoy * James Doohan as Scott * George Takei as Sulu * Nichelle Nichols as Uhura Guest Stars * Keye Luke as Donald Cory * Steve Ihnat as Garth of Izar * Yvonne Craig as Marta * Gary Downey as Tellarite * Dick Geary as Andorian * William Blackburn as Hadley (uncredited) * Frank da Vinci as Brent (uncredited) * Roger Holloway as Roger Lemli (uncredited) References Alexander the Great; Antos IV; asylum; Axanar; Bonaparte, Napoleon; Caesar, Julius; Cochrane deceleration maneuver; Elba II; Elba II asylum; Hitler, Adolf; Kuan, Lee; Krotus; Orions; Romulans; Shakespeare's sonnets; Shakespeare, William; Tau Ceti; three-dimensional chess External Links * Category:TOS episodes de:Wen die Götter zerstören es:Whom Gods Destroy nl:Whom Gods Destroy